This invention relates to a headlight unit for vehicles of a type in which first and second reflectors are rigidly coupled together and mounted in a common housing covered by a light transmissive shield to be adjustable about at least one axis, with the first reflector being arranged to reflect exiting light in approximately parallel beams from a bulb and the second reflector being somewhat elliptically shaped and being constructed as part of a fixed optical unit further including a frame supporting a collecting lens in a beam path and a blinder between the second reflector and the collecting lens, or condenser, approximately at a focus point of the collecting lens, with the fixed optical unit being set deeper in the housing, in a light exiting direction, than the first reflector.
In such a known headlight unit, as is described in German Offenlegungsschrift DE 37 03 129, attaching points are formed on first and second reflectors with which an immediate rigid connection between adjacent sides of both reflectors as well as connection of the first and second reflectors to a housing are produced. In this manner, each reflector is similarly a supporting member of the other reflector. Therefore, and because the second reflector forms part of a heavy optical unit including a blinder (or light-blocking shield) and a lens supported by a frame, the reflectors cannot be reliably maintained vibration-free in the housing during driving operation. In addition, stress forces can be created in reflector bowls. Further, it is disadvantageous that the reflectors, because of their specially formed attaching points for this type headlight, cannot be used for other headlight units. Both reflectors are arranged relative to one another so that the lens of the optical unit and a front frame of the first reflector are sufficiently spaced from a common-covering light-transmissive shield (their spacings therefrom being approximately the same). If the light-transmissive shield is arranged at an acute angle to the optical axis, the fastening points between both reflectors must be correspondingly differently arranged.
It is an object of this invention to provide a headlight unit of a type described in the first paragraph of claim 1 in which the first and second reflectors are attached to the housing independently of one another, that is such that one reflector is not a supporting member of the other reflector, but without substantially increasing the number of required components while at the same time a sufficiently dimensioned spacing between the lens of the optical unit and a front frame of the first reflector from the light-transmissive shield can be maintained, and further with the fastening points of the optical unit lying at a surface that is quite near to a center of gravity of the optical unit.